04.28.22

European Parliament and the harmonisation of e-invoicing

One of the underlying aims of the European Parliament has been the harmonisation of e-invoicing across Member States. This naturally will lead to increased automation, efficacy and reduced costs associated with the e-invoicing process.

To this effect, the European Parliament has called on the European Commission to set up a common standard by 2022.

In related objectives, there is also a request to consider the role of e-invoicing in real-time reporting. We have already seen some EU Member States such as Hungary successfully deploy this.

Following the success of mandate in Italy in significantly reducing the VAT gap, the European Parliament has called for a gradual adoption of obligatory e-invoicing- with an emphasis on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Considering the upcoming French mandate, there has also been renewed interest to consider the needs of this particular group of taxpayers, and it looks like this this is gaining traction in Europe, too. Furthermore, there is a call for invoices to only be administered via certified systems to ensure full data protection.

By 2023, it is anticipated that the system will produce compliant documents for taxpayers, again with a focus on SMEs.